"Soviet" is derived from a Russian word signifying council, assembly, advice, harmony, concord... related to Slavic "věst" ("news"), English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or" (which came to English through French), or the Dutch "weten" (to know; cf. "wetenschap" = science).
Not sure what I’m missing here. If we take the Russian language wiki as ground truth, what’s wrong with the etymology given on the English language wiki?pic.twitter.com/1zuYXbBQtS
-
-
English wiki points to the Slavic “news” of the etymology. Russian wiki does no such thing and is a more forceful approach. The nuance here is not just about “giving advice or counsel”. It’s instructing. Giving direction. Coming from the Slavonic Church side.
-
But the English just says “related to” the Slavic word for news. Which I take to mean that “soviet” and “věst” share a common ancestor, but not that one is derived from the other. Sorry if I’m being dense here....
- 2 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.